


The One Where Sokka Screws Up

by thefiresfromheaven



Series: Zukka Omega!Verse [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alpha Sokka, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, Omega Verse, Sad, Scent Kink, Slow Build, by that i mean we talk about how we should NOT rape, everyone misunderstands, mention of rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 11:42:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7359847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thefiresfromheaven/pseuds/thefiresfromheaven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>See, here's the thing. Zuko smells like honey-and-fire, but his fire smell isn't just fire. It's the scent of sweet-smelling wood burning in a low, hot flame. It's the smell of a campfire surrounded by good friends and loved ones. Zuko's fire scent smells like home, and good, and everything right in the world. The way he smells right now is not any of those things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One Where Sokka Screws Up

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, and welcome to this week's segment of "I'm only inspired to write at 1 o'clock in the morning"

“They've been gone for two days!” Sokka throws his hands up in the air, pacing back and forth around the fountain. Zuko and Aang had left on Appa two days ago, early in the morning, set on visiting the home of the Sun Warriors, the first human firebenders. Now Sokka doesn't know much about it, but he's pretty sure that wandering around a dead city and trying to find fire bending secrets shouldn't take this long.

“Aang and Zuko will be fine,” Katara says calmly, not even looking up from where she's mending Toph's tunic. “They're both strong benders and they can take care of themselves.”

“But Zuko can't even firebend right now! He said so himself!”

“Relax, Snoozles.” Toph, who is lounging beside Katara in a spare tunic, flicks a small rock at his side. “I don't know if you've noticed, but Prince Fancy Pants is pretty good with those swords of his. I'm sure he'll be fine. Now you sit your butt down and stop pacing around. You're giving me a headache.”

Sokka growls but slows down and comes over to sit beside her. There's just something about female Alphas that he really can't say no to. It's probably Katara's fault.

His sister shoots him a sharp glance, as if she can hear what he's thinking. “Behave, Sokka. You think I'm not just as worried about Aang as you are about Zuko? But I'm staying calm and doing something useful.”

Sokka's brain catches on the Aang and Zuko comparison instead of the hint at usefulness that he was probably supposed to hear. “What's that supposed to mean?” he demands, sitting up straighter and narrowing his eyes at Katara. He understands why she's worried about Aang, of course. She's been subtly courting him for months now (not that the kid has noticed) and so of course she's already quite protective of and attached to him, even if he hasn't seemed to notice all of the signs. But how does that have anything to do with Zuko?

Katara rolls her eyes at him. “Really, Sokka? I have never seen you so growl-y and protective over someone in my life, not even Suki!”

“Suki doesn't need protection,” Sokka says, feeling offended on her behalf. “She's a strong and capable warrior.”

“Yeah, well so is Zuko,” Toph points out, leaning her head back against her rock pillow.

“Well I-” Sokka makes a frustrated noise. On some level, he knows that the two girls are right. Zuko is a great fighter, and he can absolutely take care of himself. On the other hand, he's so… Spirits, he's so soft and gorgeous, and anyone who gets a whiff of him will know exactly what he is, and what if he runs into someone who will take advantage of that sweet, submissive personality of his? Not all Alphas have as good moral compasses as Sokka does and he just knows that Zuko is going to run into an Alpha who will overpower him and just-

Toph punches him in the shoulder, hard, and he starts, growl cutting off abruptly. Wait, growl? Since when was he growling?

Katara rolls her eyes again. “Alpha males,” she mutters, sewing- well the only word that really describes it is viciously. “You're all such blockheads.”

Sokka doesn't reply, just frowns down at his hands, clenching and unclenching his fingers. Where are all of these weird reactions coming from? He's never felt like this about anything- or anyone- before. Sure, he's felt protective of people (Katara, Suki, Yue) but it's never been like this, like an involuntary reflex. He has no idea what to call this feeling or what he's supposed to do about it, and he wishes, now more than ever, that his dad was around. Hakoda is an Alpha too, and he'd always understood the things that Sokka was going through, had always had a good explanation ready for him. Mom had been an Omega, so maybe he had some sort of explanation, maybe he could tell Sokka how to deal with the overwhelmingly good smell that always seemed to be wafting off of Zuko's skin, or how to stop growling every time Zuko got even the tiniest bit startled. Spirits, he really wishes his dad was here.

* * *

Appa's low roar echoes through the Temple and Sokka starts to his feet, dropping his boomerang in his haste to get to the area where he knows Aang will land the sky bison. He's the first to arrive on the platform and he feels like he's going to vibrate out of his clothes with excitement.

“You're alive!” he cries as soon as he sees Zuko sitting in Appa's saddle. Zuko looks startled for a moment, glances at Aang like he expects the greeting to be for him, but Sokka isn't looking at him at all and so he looks back at him and his lips curve into a tiny, shy smile. Sokka grins back and shuffles closer to the bison while he waits for the Omega to descend.

“Of course we're alive, Sokka.” Aang's voice breaks him out of his little bubble of Zuko Zuko Zuko, and he spares a glance for the Beta, who is beaming at him. “And we learned a lot about fire bending, see!” And he proceeds to, well, bend fire. Which is great and all (and Katara, who is just now coming up to them, is making various appreciative noises and praising Aang), but Sokka is suddenly very distracted and very annoyed, because as Zuko steps closer to him he notices something is off.

See, here's the thing. Zuko smells like honey-and-fire, but his fire smell isn't just fire. It's the scent of sweet-smelling wood burning in a low, hot flame. It's the smell of a campfire surrounded by good friends and loved ones. Zuko's fire scent smells like home, and good, and everything right in the world. The way he smells right now is not any of those things.

Now it's not like the fire-scent is bad per say, it's just… it's so not right that Sokka is feeling a little nauseous. It's a forest fire, crackling green being consumed by red-hot flames. It's exotic spices and pepper flakes thrown in a bronze brazier. It's the smell of dried herbs going up in smoke.

Sokka feels like he's going to vomit.

Apparently he also looks like he's going to vomit because Aang stops explaining their trip to Katara (Sun Warriors, dragons, rainbow flames, blah blah blah) and tilts his head at him. “Sokka? You okay?”

Sokka is definitely not okay, but he mutters an excuse about “eating some bad meat or something” and hurries off, pressing one hand against his stomach and another against his nose, trying to get the wrongness of that smell out of his nostrils.

He's not ashamed to admit that he goes off and hides. He grabs Spacesword and takes it off to practice, to sweat that awful smell out of his body. It takes forever, but he finally feels okay enough to go rejoin the others. As he approaches the fire, he prays to the Spirits that the smell is gone. He arrives just in time to witness one of the strangest things he has ever seen. Zuko and Aang are… dancing? Sort of? It looks like dancing, but (Zuko explains, with an indignant expression on his face) it's actually an ancient fire bending form.

“And what's your little form called?” Katara asks, arching an eyebrow at him.

Zuko gives a defeated sounding sigh. “… The Dancing Dragon.”

Everyone laughs. Not a mean laugh, not at all, and Sokka sees Zuko smile a little and he can't help but smile himself, glad that the group is accepting Zuko so easily. Then the wind changes and blows Zuko's scent over his way and- ugh. It's not nearly as bad as it was before, not nearly as potent, but it's still just as disgusting and Sokka doesn't think that he can stand that for much longer. He covers his nose and marches over to Zuko.

“Okay, Mr. Dancing Dragon,” he says, grabbing Zuko's elbow and really pushing the “authoritative Alpha” in his voice. “We're all glad you got your stuff back, but you need a bath. You stink like a forest fire.”

“It's probably from the dragons blowing fire on us,” Aang volunteers, sitting up straighter. “Katara, do I smell weird?” 

Katara leans over and sniffs delicately at him and seems to agree with Sokka because she pushes herself to her feet and declares that she's going to make sure he gets a bath, “Right this instant, Spirits, if only you could smell yourself.”

Sokka steers Zuko towards the bath rooms. The place has held up surprisingly well for being unused for a century, and there's actual running water in the bathrooms (it comes down from a series of hot springs located above them, and Sokka and Teo had a lot of fun figuring that out how that worked), so it's really easy for him to start running a bath for Zuko. He fusses over the temperature of the water, adding a little water from the cold spigot to make sure that it won't burn the Omega's skin, then grabs all of the soaps that he can find and plops down next to the tub and looks up at Zuko expectantly.

Zuko is… bright red. “Are you really going to bathe me?” he asks, managing to sound embarrassed, incredulous, and just a tiny bit shy all at once. Sokka stares blankly at him for a second, then scrambles to his feet, feeling his own face flush with heat.

“No, no, of course not,” he sputters, slowly backing away from what his brain has officially labeled as 'DANGER! DANGER! WARNING!'

His back hits the wall and he feels his way to the door, mumbling half-formed excuses and apologies that Zuko probably can't even understand, waving his hands aimlessly. “I'll just-” he fumbles at the door handle, dammit, why won't the thing turn! “I'll just wait. Outside. You do- you know, washing and stuff, I'll just-” the handle finally turns and he falls back into the corridor, managing to regain his feet just in time to not fall flat on his butt and close the door in one smooth motion.

“Oh, Spirits,” he groans, sliding down the wall and letting his face drop into his hands. “I'm such a fucking idiot.” Just because he's an Alpha and Zuko is an Omega does not mean that it is appropriate to offer to bathe him. Nope. Nopity fucking nope. That is definitely crossing a line.

And yet… Sokka's brain (bad, bad brain) offers him a tempting image of Zuko in the bath, wet, slick with soap. His eyes close and he imagines it, the curve of his neck as he leans back against the edge of the tub, his eyes fluttering closed, his usually tense body relaxing in the hot water, under the touch of Sokka's hands. Spirits, he would be so good to him, he'd clean him so carefully and make sure he smelt of the right kind of fire again, and he'd massage every ounce of tension out of his muscles until he was just a pile of sweet-smelling, Omega jelly in Sokka's arms, and then-

Sokka jerks and bangs his head back in the wall, because nope! And shit, he's half hard and he should really get up and just go to bed already or maybe throw himself off the edge of the Temple. But he just, he can't, not until he knows that Zuko smells like himself again. So he settles down and breathes deeply and concentrates on gross things (like Appa sneezing on him, or that time he accidentally saw Gran Gran naked when he was three, and yep, there it is!) and he waits.

Zuko takes forever (which is probably good, that smell honestly did need to be scrubbed out of his skin), and Sokka is starting to feel sleepy by the time the bath room door swings open and Zuko steps out. And… he's only wearing a towel and Sokka feels his mouth go dry and he cannot stop staring at Zuko's chest.

“Um, I figured my clothes probably smelled bad too,” he says, ducking his head and clutching at the edge of his towel. “And I didn't bring a change of clothes in with me so...”

“Right,” Sokka says, his voice cracking. “Um. I can go grab those for you?” He's already standing, trying to hide the trembling in his hands, trying not to give away how much he wants to grab Zuko and just touch him everywhere.

“That would be nice,” Zuko says quietly, his cheeks flushing (and not just from the heat of his bath). Sokka nods and pretty much turns and runs down the corridor. He knows where Zuko's stuff is, obviously, and it only takes him a few moments to locate everything and then he's running back because he doesn't want anyone else to even get a chance to see Zuko like he is now. Spirits know how they would react, especially if they're anything like Sokka.

“Here,” he says, shoving the pile of clothes at Zuko, and he's sure his own face is red again. Zuko takes everything and then disappears back inside, reappearing moments later, fully dressed (disappointment, sighs Sokka's brain), with his old clothes wrapped up together in a damp ball. He must have washed them, which is honestly such a relief because it means that Sokka will (hopefully) never have to smell that awful scent ever again (at least not on Zuko).

“So do I smell better now?” Zuko asks, and then he- Sokka's thoughts kind of stutter to a halt for a second, because Zuko tilts his head back and bares his neck, and oh shit, does he not know how sexual that is? Sokka feels like he can't breathe, can't do anything but stare at the creamy-white expanse of Zuko's neck and try and figure out the best place to bite and claim. Sokka's body is moving almost without his consent and he crowds Zuko back against the wall, presses him back into the cold stone and smushes his face into the crook of his neck and he wants so badly to bite him, Alpha instinct is screaming at him to claim this lovely Omega who smells so sweet and offers himself so willingly. He stops just short of actually sinking his teeth in, his mouth open and panting against Zuko's skin, and thank the Spirits, he has just enough voluntary control over himself to stop from actually pressing his whole body (erection and all) against Zuko's.

He takes a moment to try and calm himself (which is so hard to do it almost hurts), inhaling deeply through his nose, and yeah, that was a terrible idea. Zuko smells of honey-and-fire again, so achingly sweet and perfect, and it's so much stronger than it usually is, here so close to his skin, Spirits, Sokka is sure that he must taste of honey too, it's so strong, and he's just gotta find out for himself, so he licks a wet stripe up the side of Zuko's neck.

Zuko keens. He whimpers, soft and desperate, and wraps his fingers around Sokka's wrists (Sokka's hands are pressing into his shoulders, pinning him to the wall), but he's not trying to push him off, it's more like he's clinging, holding on for dear life, and he tilts his head farther back, trying to expose more of his neck to Sokka.

Sokka groans, his body aching with need, and he's barely hanging on now. He mouths softly at Zuko's neck, his tongue flicking out to taste that honey-sweet skin, and he can't remember why he needs to stop, why he would ever want to stop. Zuko's scent spikes sharply and Sokka feels dizzy, breathless, and so terribly hungry. He nips lightly at the Omega's skin, then again when Zuko makes that desperate keening noise again and tightens his grip on is wrists. Sokka grins triumphantly (this Omega wants him so fucking bad, Spirits, he's going to be the death of him if he keeps making noises like that), bites down again and sucks, trying to leave a mark.

“Sokka!”

And it's not Zuko calling out his name. His nose tells him strange Alpha, but his ears tell him Toph, and he wages an internal war for a moment. Toph's voice says it all, in heavy Alpha tones, 'no, Sokka, what you're doing is wrong, you need to stop right now,' but his brain tells him to ignore the strange Alpha, to claim Zuko now, before she has a chance to get to him, to bite into his Omega right here and now so she can see him staking his claim.

His voice of reason (which sounds suspiciously like Katara) pipes up and reminds him that Zuko is definitely not his Omega and that he's basically about to rape him, which kind of makes his whole world grind to a sudden stop. He goes statue stiff for a moment, he stops breathing, and then all of a sudden he's scrambling back, eyes wide with panic and face on fire with shame.

“Shit, shit, I'm so sorry,” he says hastily, and he can't meet Zuko's eye, hell, he can't look at him period. “Shit, fuck, I'm just- Spirits, I'm so sorry Zuko, I didn't mean- shit.”

He kind of runs for it then, and yes, he is definitely ashamed of that because that's not really a great response, but at the same time he knows that if he stays for much longer he's going to jump Zuko again (his scent is on his clothes, on his hands, in his mouth now) and he will not rape him. Oh Spirits, this has got to be the most awful, most humiliating day of his entire life, and he's just really fucking glad that Toph couldn't actually see them.

* * *

Sokka eventually returns to the area they've all staked out in, but he doesn't sleep. He spends a few hours tossing and turning in his sleeping bag before he gives up and starts wandering the halls. Dawn finds him outside of Zuko's room, absolutely exhausted and with some kind of vague plan to apologize to the firebender.

He raises his hand to knock, but just as his hand makes contact with the wood the door opens. Zuko stands in front of him and he looks… well, he looks pretty exhausted too, and Sokka instantly feels terrible. The poor guy had probably had much more trouble sleeping than him.

Zuko looks surprised to see him, and he straightens his posture, looking at Sokka with a weird expression.

“Listen,” Sokka says quickly, before Zuko can say anything and before he loses his nerve. “I'm really sorry about last night. I overstepped, like a lot, and I'm so sorry. I promise it won't happen again. I hope you can forgive me.”

Zuko looks at him and his shoulders seem to sag, and those might be tears in the corners of his eyes? But no, they can't be, that would be stupid.

“Yeah,” he replies, his pretty golden eyes flick to the side, his tone cool and dismissive. “Of course, I forgive you. It was just a stupid mistake, right?”

Sokka feels like his heart is shattering into tiny pieces, but he somehow manages to crack a smile. “Right. Of course. Let's just forget all about it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Seriously someone stop me. I have some kind of aversion to actually rereading my own work, like it's too much effort. So, ya know, if anyone is interested in beta'ing for me, hit me up.


End file.
